A Wing Commander Gave Up His Life Saving 169 People & The Nation Needs To Know His Tale Of Heroism

While we were all sitting in the comforts of our nested homes on 4th July, Wing Commander Mandeep Singh Dhillon gave his life saving 169 stranded people, in a tragic helicopter crash during a flood rescue operation in Arunachal Pradesh. Despite the weather turning bad, they rescued people in five sorties from Sagalee to Naharlagun. On the sixth sortie to Sagalee village, the weather worsened so much that they decided not to risk civilians' lives and did not take people on board. Within minutes after taking off from the village, the ground station lost contact with them and they later found out that the helicopter had crashed.

His neighbours and friends in Patiala remember him as a warm and outgoing person with exceptional leadership qualities, and wished he could also save his own life along with the 169 and had lived to tell the tale. A Facebook post has gone viral that is shared by his friend.

The brave officer was commanding the Helicopter Unit at Tezpur, and had over 18 years of flying experience in varied terrain, from icy mountains to the jungles of North East India.

Never shying away from his core job, he was always enthusiastic about his passion and profession. Along with Wing Commander Mandeep, we've lost a flight engineer, a policeman from Arunachal Pradesh, and Flight Lieutenant Singh in the ill-fated Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv. His kin and acquaintances claim that he was a true leader who stayed loyal to his duties till his last breath.

The Indian Armed Forces have been subjected to a lot of malevolent feelings in the past months, and what is even more disheartening is the fact that most of the media coverage is given to the negative aspects rather than the positive ones. We're all really quick to judge and talk about what went wrong and what shouldn't have been done, but what about the ones who have lost their lives protecting us? Why don't we talk about the men who work day in and day out in rescue operations saving people? The ones who died for us? There are so many stories untold and unknown just because those lives weren't commemorated or paid homage to by the media. It is often that we do not appreciate what we have until it is gone forever. Such are the lives of the ones protecting our country.

In today's times when everyone just wants to pounce on the Indian Military for the slightest of things, we ought to remember that it is only because of them that so many lives could be rescued in the first place. They deserve the credit, even if they don't ask for it, because these men will continue to do their jobs whether they are glorified by the media or not, these men will continue saving lives whether they are talked about or not, and these men will continue protecting us whether we give them the credit or not, because in them resides the love and passion to serve the country and its people.